Author: Our Special Correspondent
Publication: The Hindu
Date: November 21, 2002
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/11/21/stories/2002112103341200.htm
West Bengal's ruling CPI(M) has
alleged that a section of the Congress in Murshidabad district has close
links with suspected ISI agents who were picked up in Kolkata on Sunday.
The CPI(M) daily, Ganasakti, today
front-paged a report which said the Jalangi Youth Congress president, Samsuzzaman
Biswas, alias Happy, had links with the suspected ISI agents and was absconding.
On Sunday, nine Bangladeshis, two
of them suspected ISI agents, were arrested from the New Market area in
central Kolkata. At least four persons, including a woman, were picked
up from Murshidabad for allegedly supplying information relating to the
Army to Pakistani intelligence.
The CPI( M) has claimed that certain
Congress leaders in districts, such as Ziauddin Biswas, had close links
with the arrested persons. The CPI(M) has also accused him of running unlawful
business activities.
His son, Happy, too, was a participant
in such activities, it said. Officers from the State and Army intelligence
have reached Murshidabad to interrogate the arrested persons.
The report also alleged that Afazuddin
Biswas, Congress leader from Bidhupur, in Murshidabad, had close links
with the arrested persons and he, too, was absconding.
Significantly, this is the first
time ``Al Qaida-trained terrorists'' have been picked up from the heart
of the city. Terrorists had so far been operating from Kolkata's eastern
fringes.
Liaquat Hussain Liaquat and Arman
Khan had taken shelter in Garia Gardens in south Kolkata, a part of the
city terrorists had avoided so far.
The Home Ministry had informed the
West Bengal Government some time ago that members of the Al Qaida, which
had created its operational base in the neighbouring Bangladesh, were crossing
over to the State to conduct subversive activities.
Meanwhile, police are looking for
Jayanta Gupta, who had allegedly provided shelter to Liaquat and Arman.
